Better This Way?
by YourDarkMistress
Summary: It was painfully obvious Winona was different. Five times Winona used her gift, and one time it was her son.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Winona was special, and everyone knew it. Five times she used her gift and one time it was her son.

A/N: I dont know if I'm ever going to finish this, because I have so much on my mind, but I needed a breather, and this happened. I tried to make it sound like a little kid, so please review and tell me what you think! It's rated T overall, but this little snippet is only about K or K+. Later, things will get, erm...bloody.

Disclaimer: Me no own, you no sue. Capiche?

......oOo.o

The first time it happened, Winona was five.

She was in school now, a big girl, just like her big sister, Mandy. She could get on the big yellow bus every morning with her pretty pink backpack and brand new white sandals and her long blond hair in pigtails. She smiled brightly as the teacher handed out crayons and paper. Crisp, white sheets of _real_ paper. Winnie bounced in her seat. She had never used real paper before. Never before had she used those colorful wax sticks—crayons—either. She wanted to reach out and touch them, oh did she ever want to _touch _them, but she had promised Mommy to be a good girl and do _exactly_ what she was told. So she smiled at the blond-haired boy sitting next to him, and his face turned bright red; almost as red as the first crayon in the box.

"Hi." She said in a very small voice. "I'm Winnie. Who are you?" He turned even redder, and he looked up at her. His eyes were big and that pretty color that Mandy had told her was the most beautiful in the whole wide world—cerulean.

The boy gulped a very big gulp and bit his lip a little. "I'm Gerogie-Porgie-Pie." He said in teeny-tiny shy voice. "It's silly, I know. You can call me Georgie instead if you wanna." He had a big hole in his mouth where one of his front teeth was supposed to be, and Winnie thought it mad him look really cute.

Winona nodded very fast-like. "I like your name." She said happily with a big grin on her face, especially for him. "Have you ever colored with crayons ah'fore?" She asked.

"Yeah, once. They were really fun. It's like playing with a rainbow!" Winnie giggled a little and bounced her leg, excited.

"I bet you color real good then!" She said.

Georgie shook his head. "It's lots harder then it looks. You have to hold them a special way!"

Winnie opened her mouth to talk, but just then, the nice teacher-lady dinged the bell in the front of the room and Winnie pressed a finger to her lips instead, ready to explode she was so happy.

"Good morning children!" The teacher said with a smile. "I am your new teacher, Mrs. Hennerson. Welcome to Kindergarten!" She wrote a bunch of funny shapes on the board, shapes that Big Sister Mandy had called letters one day. "Today is the first day of school for most of you, and I would very much like to get to know y'all." Winnie scrunched up her nose at the funny way her new teacher talked. Mommy said saying made-up words like '_y'a_ll' was not a very good thing. She didn't have time to dwell on it though (Dwell was Winnie's favorite word. Big Sister Mandy taught it to her!) Because the teacher was off talking again. "I'm going to point to you, and y'all're going to tell me your name and your favorite color. Let's start with you." She pointed to a pudgy boy in the front of the room.

"I'm John," He said loudly. So loudly, Winona wanted to cover her ears. "and my favorite color is green!" Mrs. Hennerson nodded happily and wrote some more funny sybols on the board.

Winnie tried to pay attention, she really, truly did, but her eyes kept drifting to the crayons sitting in front of her. She kept imaging all of the pretty things she could make with them, and only really paid attention again when the teacher had pointed to Georgie. His face turned red again, and he kept saying 'I' over and over until Winnie pushed on him a little bit. He gulped so loud Winona could hear it. "I'm Georgie-Porgie-Pie an—" He was cut off by a fit of laughter at his name. Winnie snorted and stood up, oh-so angry!

"Don't laugh!" She said. "I like his name. It's a very good name, and I bet he thinks so too!" She turned towards the boy, hinds on her hips, and looked at him sternly. "Don't you Georgie-Porgie-Pie?"

He nodded a little. "I guess. It's better then what my Daddy wanted to name me."

"What was that?" Winona smiled at him, asking him in her mind to keep talking.

He giggled a little. "Tiberius." The whole room laughed even harder and Winnie, feeling really good about herself, sat down.

"Now, what were y'all saying?" Mrs. Hennerson asked Georgie. This time, instead of being shy, Georgie smiled.

"My name is Georgie-Porgie-Pie, and my favorite color is Yellow!" Winona clapped happily for him, like had just won a big race!

Now the teacher pointed to Winona, and she stood up proud. "My name is Winona Elizabeth Belisio-Greyson, and my favorite color in the whole wide world is Cerulean!"

All of the kids 'ooh'ed at her big word, and Winnie sat down smiling.

There were only a few kids left after she went, but Winnie found that she couldn't keep her eyes off the paper and crayons again. Finally, finally, finally, the teacher said it was time to color. She showed everyone the special way you hold crayons (which were much much much different from holding a stylus!) then told everyone to draw something very special to them. Winona was just about to open her brand-new box of colors when the teacher walked over to her a kneeled down so Winona could see every tiny wrinkle on her face. "Will you please come with me, Winona?" Mrs. Hennerson asked. Winona frowned and looked between her crayons and her teacher, then sighed and placed the box back on the table. She had promised promised promised Mommy that she would be good, and that meant talking to her new teacher.

Mrs. Hennerson led Winnie to a corner of the room by a rocking chair and had her sit in it. "It was very nice of you to stand up for Georgie," She said. "I am very, very proud of you Winona." Winona smiled and let the teachers face go blurry so she could see her crayons at her table better. "I want you to know that what you did was very brave."

"Thank you ma'am." Winnie said, shifting so she had an even better look at her crayons. She could almost see herself drawing at that table with those pretty colors.

"Are you alright, Winona? You seem distracted." Mrs. Hennerson said.

"Oh, I'm fine ma'am." Winnie said immediately. "I just really want to color with those crayons." The teacher smiled and stood up.

"Go right ahead dear."

Winona skipped back to her seat happily and grabbed her box, almost ripping it open. When she looked inside, she saw a lot of pointy, colorful sticks. She gingerly pulled one out of the box and held it in her hand. She smiled as she pulled the clean white paper in front of her. Oh boy oh boy oh boy! She was going to draw a picture with real crayons!

She pressed the tip against the paper and pulled a line. Such a pretty color…the most pretty pink she ever did see. Soon she was coloring a pretty pink flower. It was very pretty, Winona thought. But it was missing something.

Her eyes got all blurry as she continued drawing. She didn't see anything clearly. She want coloring with crayons, she was the crayons. When she finished she blinked, and took a good long look at her picture. Then she frowned. She had drawn a picture of a…boy holding a…picture of a …flower? She looked angrily at the crayon in her hand. It was a beautiful color; it was cerulean.

"Winnie, Winnie!" Georgie-Porgie-Pie said, poking her. "Look at my picture!" Winnie smiled and nodded. Georgie-Porgie-Pie held up a picture of a pretty-pink flower. Winona gasped and looked at her picture. The boy was Georgie! It had to be, it looked just like him! His hair was the right color, his face was the right shape and he was even missing a tooth! It was a picture of him, holding up his picture. Winnie smiled oh-so very happily, and giggled.

"I love it!" She held up her picture to show him. "Look!" Georgie's eyes got really big as he looked.

"It's me! Wow! It looks just like me! How did you know I was gunna draw a flower for you?"

"I don't know." Winnie scratched her head. "I just…did. Do you like it?" Georgie nodded.

Winona drew many more pictures that day. She painted a big red planet, and a funny man with pointed ears, and her big sister in a bea-u-tiful white dress and a tiny little baby. Her favorite though was of a little girl. Her skin was very white and pale, and her lips were bright red. Her eyes were closed and she was lying with a big bunch of flowers in her hands. He bed was really tiny though, and Winnie thought she must have been very uncomfortable. Winnie was talking quietly with her new bestest-buddy when the teacher came around to see their work.

"Well, my oh my, that _is_ wonderful." She said as she picked up her stack of pictures. "You must be a protégée. She looked at them each happily, but frowned when she came to the pretty girl. "Well, this looks just like my daughter. Exactly like my daughter. What is she lying in?"

Winnie shrugged. "A bed?"

Weeks passed. Winona and Gerogie-Porgie-Pie became very good friends, and played and colored every day. One day though, something strange happened. Mrs. Hennerson was not in class. Somebody else was teaching; an old lady with grey hair and a wrinkly wrinkly face. Winona frowned. Mrs. Hennerson was supposed to teach them how to count to 500 today!

"Ma'am" She asked sweetly. 'Where is Mrs. Hennerson?" The lady frowned.

"There has been a horrible accident. Her daughter, Wistera, died last night, at her own hands."

Winnie frowned, and thought of her picture from weeks ago, the one Mrs. Hennerson said looked just like her daughter. Maybe it hadn't been a bed she was sleeping in…

A/N: Whaddya think? Review and let me know If I sould continue!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Please, don't kill me! I'm sooooo sory this took so long, and the only thing I can say is that life decided that it wanted to beat me with various sharp, pointy sticks. I wrote as fast as I could as soon as people said they wanted me to continue, but I just didnt have a plan so it took a while. Then, when I did get an idea, I had tests and crap. I have had this done since may, but my friend (who usualy reads over my work wor me) never read it, and I had to do it myself. When I finaly did check over it, I didnt want to actualy put in the changes simply because it would bore me to tears. Well, today I finaly got that done and I have to say that it's still not perfect. If anyone spots any mistakes or has any advice at all, please review. I'm just a developing writer here, and I need as much feedback as possible if I ever want to get any better!

I hope the length makes up for the lateness, but I doubt it. Thank you all for being patient and special thanks to Danni Lea who kicked my ass back into gear :)

Well, on with the show!

* * *

The next time was nearly four years later. Winnie was generally a good student, she did her work and homework and tried really hard to impress her teacher. Today though, she wanted nothing to do with school. She had a terrible dream the previous night, of bright lights and colors and fire, and it had really scared her. the second she woke up, there was an intense pressure on her chest, a foreboding of sorts, and that morning she begged and pleaded with her parents to let her stay home, with no luck. Even her beloved Mandy refused to see her point. She had to admit, her argument was not a very good one (That _bad_ things were going to happen) but she had an incredibly _bad_ feeling about today. Needless to say, this put little Winnie in a very bad mood.

She frowned as she marched up to the shuttlebuss stop, huffing-and-puffing the entire way. She had insisted on bringing her little pink backpack, even though it was very dirty and the seams had been weakened greatly over the years. She was practically growling by the time the big yellow monster showed up to swallow the hopes and dreams of her and her peers to transport them to the big brick house of social desensitization.

She stomped hardly on the steps of the bus and marched like a convicted criminal to her seat in the second-to-last row. Georgie was already there, smiling as usual, reading a book upside-down. She plopped into the seat next to him, and huffed. His smile faded when he looked up from his reading and saw his best friends' apparent bad mood.

"What's up Winnie?" He asked kindly, big cerulean eyes blinking slowly.

"I don't wanna go to school today."

He sighed. "You don't wanna go to school ever, Winnie."

"Yeah, but I just…I just…I have a bad feeling about today, okay? Like, something bad is going to happen. Like, _Bad_ bad." The boy shrugged and placed a hand on his friends shoulder.

"We can't skip school, Winnie. We need to learn things. You'll never be a Xenobiologist if you don't even know what xenobiology is." His big cerulean eyes blinked at her innocently and she huffed, smashing her face into her palms, leaning forward so the top of her head touched the seat in front of her.

"I know what xenobiology is," She said, defeated. Those eyes could melt her. "And I could probably skip right through eli-men-tree school right now to Jr. High."

Georgie chuckled and rubbed her neck dotingly. She looked up at him and he smiled that stupid, knowing smile that he was so fond of. "You can't skip elementary school, especially if you cant even say elementary."

"I have a speech impediment!" She said loudly, smooshing her head into her hands once again.

"Yet, you can say impediment with no problem whatsoever."

"It's not funny!" She massaged her temples with two fingers, and tried to ignore the headaches that were pushing through her brain like worms. "I feel like something really, really bad is going to happen. Like, end of the world bad."

George frowned, and opened his mouth to speak, but the Shuttlebus came to an abrupt stop, and he had to stop himself from smashing into the seat in front of him, like his intrepid friend found she could not.

"Darn!" She said quietly, rubbing her head with her wrist. "I hate this!"

Another chuckle. "Me too, babe."

The day was quiet uneventful. Mr. Gnocci had decided that because it was a shockingly cool, clear, beautiful day in Riverside that they would be outdoors today, observing the environment in which they live. Winona frowned. They lived in _Iowa_. There was nothing but corn, grass, and those little yellow flowers that grew everywhere. Hours passed, and though Winnie loved nature with all her heart, she did not like standing in the sun all day. When she saw a nice, big tree with leafy branches and lots of shade, she was drawn to it. Easily slipping away from the class, She sat in the pile of tiny yellow flowers at it's base. Eventually, she took to cloud watching, studying the shapes of the almost unearthly white puffs as they puffed their way across the sky. One of them looked like…an octagon. And one of them was obviously some kind of person. That one over there almost resembled a shuttlebus. Eventually, cloud gazing bored her, so she took to studying the flowers instead. Ah, what a relaxing day, a far cry from what she had originally predicted. Still, something felt off.

She cupped her hands around one of the flower blossoms and sniffed.

_Bright, yellow, inescapable pai—_

She shook her head very quickly back and forth, trying to rid herself of the strange images that floated through her brain.

Mr. Gnocchi tapped her on the shoulder and then his watch. Winona frowned and followed the man back to the class, annoyed. She was too smart for this. _They_were studying bees. Ugh. She wanted to be studying Shelats and the fabled Delta Vegan Ice Beasts, not _honeybees_. She lets her eyes go blurry and dove into her imagination, where she danced with faeries and rode dragons and was the queen of everything.

By the time it was time to go back inside for lunch, Winnie was convinced that nothing bad was going to happen that day. She had managed to block all the icky bad thoughts out of her mind, and pretended that she really was the queen of everything, and that she was only pretending to be Winona Elizabeth Bell-Greyson so she could learn what it was like to be a normal girl and be an even better Queen than she was, if that was even possible. But, unfortunately, the lunch bell rang, and little Winnie found herself being herded down the hallways like a sheep until she was pushed into the cafeteria. She quickly found her usual seat and unpacked her lunch as she waited for Georgie-Porgie-Pie to be herded like a sheep into the cafeteria too. Eventually, he took his seat and unpacked his lunch; it was much larger then hers. "You eat a lot." She said.

"Yeah," He stuffed a whole pickle into his mouth and chewed it hard. "M'alwys hunry."

Winnie unwrapped her cereal bar and munched it happily. "And yet you're the skimmiest boy I know."

He swallowed. "Skinniest."

She swallowed. "Speech Impediment!"

They continued their lunch as usual, Winnie talking about how she was going to go exploring one day and get a pet Sehlat like the Vulcan children had, and Georgie talking about his plans to single-handedly take control of the entire universe and become the evil overlord of everything.

Recess was completely normal, if a bit lower key then usual. Instead of running around playing Starfleet and Klingons, they sat next to each other on the swing set, swinging to the stars. "I can swing high-ter than you!" Winnie shouted as her seat buckled in its path and fell backwards towards the earth when…oh, what was it called? Inertia, yeah, that's it—as the inertia wore off. Winnie looked over to her friend and grinned. His eyes were closed and he was hanging backwards of the swing, his legs entwined with the chains in what was obviously against the playground rules. "Georgie!" she called, giggling. His eyes shot open, and he smiled and waved at her as his swing shot past her and almost flung him out of the seat.

Eyes wide, Winnie leaned back and let her back straighten, allowing herself to experience the vertigo of an almost weightless environment. Leaning up again she noticed that Georgie was no longer hanging off the swing; he was sitting up straight, pumping the seat as hard as he could with his legs, a determined look gracing his features. "What're you doing?" She asked, afraid she already knew.

"Up and over!" He replied excitedly, leaning back deeply as the swing moved upward, then sitting straight again as it fell.

'Up 'n over?" He nodded. "Why?"

"Because," he said as his swing sped past hers. "My daddy says that only the biggest, bravest boys swing up and over the swing set! And I wanna be the bravest boy in the whole school!" Despite the fact she was slightly horrified at the idea of flying over the swing set, she had always considered herself a brave, strong girl, just like Mandy. She came to an abrupt halt, scratching her feet through the sand until she was completely motionless. Once she was stable, she leaned back, and began pumping with a new ferocity. No way was she letting George Samuel Kirk do better than her _again. _She bit her lower lip as she gained altitude, half afraid, half exhilarated. Soon, the pendulum like qualities of the swing set caused the two of them to enter a double-dating swing, one both of them were too focused to break.

The two of them shouted simultaneously as the swing completed a 200-degree cycle. Their exclamations had gained the attention of the other children, and soon, they were gathered around their classmates, staring like they were hypnotized as the notorious Kirk-Bell duo literally _soared to new heights_.

Winona fell back as far as possible as her feet flew above her head. Sparing a glance to the side, she saw that George was doing just the same; the two of them had an uncanny sense of synchrony. She growled slightly, pressed her eyes closed, and pulled her legs underneath her to gain more altitude.

_Bam! _

The cyan orbs shot open again, and she found herself gasping for breath. The people before her were more of a transparent back image then the main features of the scenery as her vision was flooded with…ripping metal and burning and _screaming._

The next thing she could remember was blue. With white puffs, slowly puffing there way across it, like clouds…

Oh, wait. They _were _clouds.

Somehow, she had come to be lying on her back in the sand under the swing set. And she could not remember how she got there for the life of her.

She blinked a few more times, and her vision cleared, revealing that she was not alone. Georgie-Porgie-Pie was standing over her, brows drawn together.

"Uugh," She groaned, pushing herself up on one arm. "My head hurts. What happened?"

"You let go of the chains and fell backwards out of the swing." He said. "Looks like you had an episode of vertigo."

"Vertigo?"

"The whole world spinning around you."

Winona nodded in understanding, and pushed herself out of the sand. She looked around, and frowned when she noticed that everybody was gone. "They went inside." Georgie said, answering her unspoken question. "The lunch bell rang already, but I wanted to make sure you were okay, so the lunch lady said I should stay with you. She was nice, and said she'd tell our teachers we were doing something for her.

Winona frowned. "She didn't call the nurse?"

"I said she was nice, not smart."

Winona nodded again and grasped the hand that Georgie offered to her with gratitude.

"S'pose we shu' get back to class?"

"S'pose so."

The rest of that day came and went with a flash—Art, Math, Science, and reading—and by the final bell, the lunch incident was nearly forgotten. Winona hummed happily as she submitted her final test answers and began packing up.

"Don't forget children!" Her teacher called out over the hustle of excited grade-schoolers. "Big test tomorrow! One of the sections in chapter 12. I'm not telling which, so study them all!" Winona paused for a second, looking at her science Padd. Chapter 12 was there in big bold writing and red print. The names of the four sections were written just underneath the chapter heading. For some reason, her eyes were drawn to section two, and as her vision momentarily blurred, she could practically see herself answering questions on Temporal Laws. Following her hunch, she only sent section two to her at-home Padd.

She met up with Georgie in the corridor on the way to the shuttlebusses. He was smiling that big Georgie-Porgie smile, and Winnie couldn't help but smile too.

He rubbed the back of her head happily, then wrapped an arm around her shoulders. _What a ladies man! _Winnie thought as they walked together. Just as they were about to board the buss, Winnie froze. For some reason, the buss seemed much bigger then usual. Much more frightening. She shivered and leaned into her friend. He tried to nudge her forward, but she would not budge. "Stop being such a baby, Win." He whispered fiercely. "C'mon. We've gotta get home somehow, and our parents don't get off work until seven." Winona frowned, knowing she had no choice. Both of them were 'Starfleet Children'; their parents were in Starfleet, and their parents' parents were in Starfleet, and their parents' parents' parents were in Starfleet. Only Georgie's mom was not in Starfleet; she was a mechanic at an antique shop in the city, and only came home on weekends.

Winnie sucked in her gut and closed her eyes and stepped onto the buss, despite the bad feeling she was getting.

Winnona got the window seat this time. She let her head fall against the glass and zoned out, tracing patterns in the condensation on the window. She closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the quiet _vroooom_ feeling of the engines beneath her, then opened them again, and looked at her crude drawing.

A mushroom cloud.

She jolted up, and banged her head into the safety bar holding her in place. "Georgie!" She called hurriedly. "I've got that feeling again." Slowly she lost the ability to keep her eyes in focus, and it seemed like she was in another world.

The rumbling got faster and louder until it was a constant ringing, then, just as fast as it had started, it stopped. All was quiet for a moment, and there was time to peek out the window—the shuttlebuss was at the Yangtze Cove stop—then…

BANG

She jolted back to reality, inhaling sharply. She looked out the window, and was equally relieved and scared to see big white trees outside; they were on Tigris Road, twenty minutes away from the Yangtze Cove, almost two hours away from Mississippi Avenue, where they lived.

"We need to get off this bus," She said, pressing the emergency release button on the seat, causing the little red caution lights situated around the top of the shuttlebus to flash. Everybody started chattering, worried, as Winona stood up and began un-latching the security hooks on the windows.

Suddenly the whole buss came to a stop, and Winona was flung back into her seat. "What're you doing, Winnie?" George asked, worried. Winona glared at him, then stood up again, continuing to unlock the windows. The buss began to tilt slightly, undoubtedly at the motion of the buss driver getting up and walking to the back to see what all of the commotion was.

"Get your stuff Georgie-Porgie-Pie," she said to him, finishing off the last safety lock by entering her momma's Starfleet override code into the keypad. "We need to get out of here! The bus is gunna 'splode!" Turning around to get her own backpack, she saw the doubtfull look on his face and let her jaw drop. "Why aren't ya movin'? We need to go. Don' you believe me?"

Georgie looked from her to the hall between the isles where the angry looking buss driver was walking down, and finally shook his head and stood up. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and pushed her gently. "If you need me to do this with you," he started, hand on her shoulder, "I will. But I'm going need some serious explanations when we get wherever you're taking me." He paused. "Where are you taking me?"

"Away from here," She pushed the window up with all her strength, leaving a gap just big enough to fit through. It was nearly a ten foot drop, but if she landed just right, she wouldn't get hurt. She threw her backpack out it first, then ripped her friends' away from him and tossed it out too. "Anywhere but here."

"Right foot, left hand, left foot, right hand." She coached herself as she climbed up, and then launched herself out with as much force as she could muster. Falling was a wonderful experience, she reflected. Landing, however, was not. There was a sickening crunch as her feet met pavement, and a squelching noise as her knees and arms rubbed against it as well. She didn't have time to ponder, and quickly turned to face the window where Georgie stood, looking extremely nervous. She waved hurriedly and he visibly gulped before he too launched himself from the window.

His landing was much more graceful, and he came down in a sort of army-roll that appeared to do much less damage then landing feet first. "C'mon." Winnie said, pushing herself onto her feet and almost collapsing her balance was so off. George frowned, and lifted her off her feet and wrapped an arm around her waist. He handed over her backpack and she smiled faintly. Together, they hobbled into the mass of nearby red trees.

After ten whole minutes of hobbling, the vroom of the shuttlebuss began again, and Georgie assured Winona that it was gone before she allowed them to stop. She sat down on a tree stump and rolled down her knee sock to get a better look at her ankle. It was swollen and purple and disgusting, so she rolled it back up again. She looked up at Georgie, and was shocked to see he was covered in blood. As if reading her mind, he responded. "It's yours. Look at what you did to your arms and knees." She did look, and then wished she hadn't. Their arms were torn up like someone hand cut at them with an old fashioned blender blade then rubbed it with sandpaper then squirted slug guts all over it.

"Oh gosh," She exclaimed.

"Oh Gosh is right." Georgie said. "You look like one of my big brothers' toys. All ripped. I only dislocated my shoulder. Lucky me. Now would you mind telling me what all that was about?" Winona sighed and then opened her mouth, telling of the weird pictures she saw in her head. Georgie looked skeptical, but those big cerulean eyes showed nothing but trust, no amusement or anger whatsoever. "Well, if you think jumping ten feet from a buss to the ground was the right thing to do, I'm glad I came with you. You need somebody to keep you in line." She smiled a little and then looked at her feet.

"What if I was wrong? What if nothing happened?"

"Then nothing happened. Better safe than sorry, I guess."

"You don't think I'm crazy?"

The boy frowned. "I never said that. I said that I trusted you. You may or may not be crazy, I can't know for sure." Winona kicked the dirt with her good foot and leaned back on her hands.

"Do you have your cell phone?" She asked quietly. He shook his head. "Darn. Nei'r do I. Guess we're stuck here for a while, huh?"

"Yup."

Frowning, Winnona looked at the sky. The sun was almost 3/4ths of the way across the vast blue canvas. She was about to open her mouth to speak when suddenly, there was a rush of heat, and the ground shook violently for a moment. Then there was nothing. _That was it. _She was certain.

Winona and Georgie talked for a little while, until the sun began to go down, and when it became apparent nobody was coming for them that day, Georgie helped her move so that they were both leaning up against a tree, close together to stay warm.

When she woke up, she was being carried by somebody. Opening her eyes, she discovered it was so dark, she couldn't see anything. She twisted around and tried to get comfortable, absolutely unafraid. She was just about to fall back asleep when the person carrying her shook her a little.

"Child," A hard, toneless voice said. "Are you well?"

"Well?" Winnie repeated. "Um, yeah." There was a pause. "Who are you?"

It was the man's turn to pause. "I am Sarek." He said simply, a little variation in his voice. "You are Winona, I presume."

"You perfume correctly."

"Presume."

"G'bleshyou."

The older man stopped and Winona felt as he switched weight to his left hip from his right.

"I did not sneeze."

"Neither did I."

Sarek shifted the girl into one arm before reaching down to his belt and removing a long, thin stick. He placed it on the child's chest and when she only stared at it for a while, he explained. "When you cause the two chemicals contained in that thin capsule to combine, they create a chemical reaction of which visible light is a direct result of."

Winona blinked.

"When you bend it so it cracks, it glows in the dark." He clarified.

With a swift nod, Winnie did as he said, and the total darkness was banished by a faint warm yellow glow. Winnie smiled and lifted the stick up so she could see her rescuers' face.

"Oh."

He was tall and lean, with dark black hair cut like someone had put a cereal bowl over his head then shaved off whatever stuck out underneath except for the back of his neck. His eyes were dark brown, and his skin was tinted light green. Two pointed tips stuck out from underneath his hair, and his eyebrows didn't curve around his eyes, but extended straight out from their origin point.

"You're a Vulcan."

"Yes." Well, that explained how he was able to see in the dark. But still…

"How did you find us?"

"A young man, Franklin Jost, attempted to follow you into the woods, but found the idea much too intimidating, and in the stead of risking his potential safety taking a risk he was not prepared for, contacted the appropriate authorities. I was in the vicinity of the police station, and was invited to observe the process of finding a missing human first hand, and took the opportunity to better prepare myself for close association with those of your kind. Though the officials could not locate you, I could smell iron and rust of drying redblood and followed it to the tree stump at which I found you and another small child reported missing earlier this day."

Winnie's eyes widened. "Georgie! Is he okay?"

Sarek looked over his shoulder as he answered. "I believe so. He is falling behind, however."

"He's following us?"

"Affirmative. He insisted on walking alongside me, stating that it would be better if I carried you alone to our destination rather then attempt to trolley the two of you. I attempted to argue, but he presented a surprisingly logical argument to counter my own, and said logic dictated that he walk, as he is not impaired to do so in any way." Winona attempted to worm her way out of the Vulcan's arms, but found they would not budge. "Do not attempt to move. You will further damage yourself. I assure you that the boy is in acceptable physical condition." Winona continued to wiggle against him. "If you do not desist, I will have no choice but to render you unconscious for your own safety."

Winnie stopped and made a hah-rumph sound. All was quiet for a moment, and it was uncomfortable. When Sarek broke the silence, she was grateful. "The buss driver made a report to the authorities that you climbed, hacked, and opened a window, then proceeded to evacuate from said vehicle, along with your companion. After you fled into the forest, the shuttle continued on its regimented route. Ten minutes later, at its next stop, a presently unidentified malfunction caused the aforementioned shuttle to combust and explodes. I do not believe that your actions and the eventual fate of the humble school shuttle are coincidentally exclusive."

Winnona stared at him, trying to process his words.

"In layman's terms, did you know that the shuttle was going to explode, and if so, how? Do not attempt to tell me you did not."

"I just…knew," She scratched her head with her index finger. "I felt funny this morning when I got on the bus the first time and a lot of the day too, and when we were on the way home, it was almost like I could see it. Like I was there. So I followed my instincts and left." A new thought passed through her mind. "What happened to all of the people on the buss?"

Sarek stopped walking again, taken aback by her question. After a deep breath, he continued. "Five are in the hospital, two with severe injuries, three also with severe injures yet in either natural or medically induced coma's, expected to expire within the next five-point-eight-six hours." Confusion and relief flooded her small frame.

Winona leaned up a little and twined her hands into the man's strange shirt. For some odd reason, she was not wary of this man like she usually was around strangers. His presence was comforting, and the warmth he radiated was soft and comfortable; he was the _definition_ of comfort. Therefore, she had no qualms in seeking comfort from him, no matter how unwilling he was to provide it.

Slowly the wheels in her head began to turn, and she read between the lines of what had not been said. "Wh-what about the other kids, the ones not in a hospital?"

"You and your companion are in relative good health" Came his response.

"No, not us, the rest of the kids in my class, Jim and Joshua and Evangeline and Louise?" Winnona scrunched her nose as the smell of copper assaulted her nostrils, causing her to flinch.

"Close your eyes," The Vulcan said suddenly, then repeated it loudly for Georgie to hear, telling him to just walk "precisely how instructed" by Sarek."

Pressing her eyes together, she did as she was told, even though it was extremely uncharacteristic. The smell of copper brought a particular word to her mind—Pennies. It smelled like lots and lots of pennies, all sitting in a bucket of water. She pressed her face into the Vulcan's tunic, trying to get a breath of fresh air, and for a moment it worked.

But then, curiosity took hold. What _was_ that? Why did it smell like pennies of all things? Surely there wasn't really a big bucket of wet pennies lying around, especially since pennies were so hard to find now n' days. She tried, she really honestly _tried_ to keep her eyes shut, but she really, really, really wanted to see…

So she slowly pried them open…

Looked around…

And then abruptly wished she hadn't.

It was very dark out, obviously, as it was nighttime, and the moon was but a sliver in the sky, but the glow from the light stick was strong and it was visible in nearly every direction. Dark, sticky, and thick, blood and gasoline was plastered all over everything in every direction. Glass and metal had shattered and coated the ground like a powdered snow, as sick joke in the face of fate. The ground was burnt where fire had spread and the pattern resembled a spindly-limbed octopus. Chunks of metal had implanted themselves into the ground and stood as if they were standing vigil over the strewn body parts that littered the earth as well. Yes, it was the disembodied limbs that shocked Winnie. They were small and bloody with charred marks from where they were severed from their hosts. Arms, legs, torsos, even heads seemed to taunt her from the pitch dark shadows.

Her breathing began to quicken as she looked around and thought and oxygen couldn't have moved into her body fast enough. Suddenly, there was a hand on the back of her head, pressing her face into Sarek's chest and tearing her gaze form the horrible horrible scene surrounding her. She pressed her eyes closed and whimpered.

"I told you to close you eyes," He said coldly. "It was not a suggestion, it was an order. This is not something that is beneficial for a young child to be aware of."

Winnie rubbed her face into his shirt, wiping away the tears that were forming slowly. She tried to get the bad images out of her mind, but they were stuck, like somebody had used super gorilla glue and pasted them into her head. What was scarier was the fact that the flashy images and pictures that she had seen in her head and in her dreams the past few days began to make sense. She had seen different parts of an explosion, over and over again. And then, it had escaladed, and that was what had compelled her to jump from the window of the buss. She had known something bad was going to happen. But _how_?

She remembered back in kindergarten, when she drew the beautiful picture of the pale faced woman in the too-small bed. Something in her brain was connecting that time so long ago to this time now. She tried really hard to find out why it seemed so similar. Then she didn't have any funny feelings or bad dreams or even confirmation that the picture was of what her teacher had thought it was of.

_Mrs. Hennerson sat quietly at her desk, looking at the picture Winnie had drawn. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked, and the little girl didn't understand why. Winnie really really needed to talk to her teacher though, so she waited for her to stop so she could as what she needed to ask. After a while, Mrs. Hennerson started talking. Winnie wasn't sure if she was talking to her, or to nobody, so she didn't say anything. "Oh, my baby. My baby. How did you know? How did you know this would happen? Such innocence, stained with the devils' gift." She looked up at the child and grimaced. "Get out of my sight, monster. I never want to see your hideous face again, and if I do, I will wring your neck with my bare hands." _

Now that she was older and smarter and was good at hissing and staying quiet while her parents and her sister talked, she knew that the little drawing had to have been of the teachers daughter. But why was she thinking of that now? It didn't matter. It was a cointhadence.

Now though, most certainly couldn't be a cointhadence. Things like this didn't happen cointhadentaly.

"I'm sorry," She whispered. "I…I'm sorry." She didn't know what she was apologizing for, but it made her insides hurt a little less so she did it anyway. "I should'ave…I sould'ave…done something. Anything. I…" He pressed her further into his chest, so she could faintly hear the heart that was beating in his side, under his ribcage.

"To apologize is illogical. If you were sorry, you would not have done so in the first place," He paused. "It is also illogical to apologize for an incident which was out of your control."

"But, but I _saw_ it. Before. I knew something bad was going to happen. I could have told somebody, could have—"

"Very few humans of the average populace would have heeded the warnings of a child of your age and stature. Your testimony would have been meaningless, and accounts would have unfolded as they did nonetheless."

"But still, what if I—"

"What if pigs could fly?"

"Excuse me?"

"Your auditory systems are functioning optimally; there is no reason for you to not have heard my original inquiry."

"…I don't get it."

He sighed. "It is a human colloquialism. I had believed that utilizing it would help you further understand the situation. Were you also privy to the phrase, your response would have been 'There would be many more fractured windshields and such.' It seems that I overestimated your capacity for such antiquated vocalizations."

Winnie laughed once, but not because she found the Vulcan funny.

The two continued their walk in relative silence, save for the crushing of glass under the Vulcan's feet and the occasional gasp of air from the boy walking steadily behind them.

Mandy was the first person to meet them when they arrived at the Kirk household, which was nearly two miles closer to where Winnie had jumped from the buss than her own dwelling. She was crying so hard her entire face was purple. Sarek handed Winnie over to the young woman with no fuss and soon Winnie found herself crying again too. She wrapped her arms around her sister's neck and cried and cried and cried. She didn't stop until she felt another set of arms around her, a much smaller, more awkward set of arms.

"Georgie!" She shouted before turning around and hugging him even harder. He hugged her back, and even rested his head on her shoulder. "Oh Georgie, I love you so much! Please don't hate me! Please don't die! Don't ever die like that!" He rubbed her back softly, nodding twice.

"I won't Winnie, I promise I won't." Winnie's stomach tightened up and it felt like she was sinking. That bad feeling again, that _same__one_ began to fill her up as he spoke, and she held him even tighter. Oh, no. Please no. Not him. Never him.

"Georgie," She whispered. "Did you open your eyes?"

"Never closed them in the first place. It was scary."

"I looked too."

…

"Georgie-Porgie-Pie?"

"Yeah?"

"I think something's wrong with me. Something in my head."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"What makes you say that?"

Winnie bit her upper lip. "I knew the buss was going to explode," She blinked hard and forced the tears away. "I saw it explode. In my head. Over and over again. That was that feeling. Why I fell off the swing set."

Georgie didn't say anything, just held her tighter. "Don't look now," He said eventually, "but I think your sister and that Vulcan are having eye sex." Winnie smiled, and pushed away from her best—and now only—friend. "We'll get through this," he added solemnly "Together."

* * *

A/N: Sorry for putting TWO Authors notes in the chapter, but I felt that the end is a better place for this then the beginning. I know that in the next chapter, Winona and George are going to be in high school, and that Winnie is going to have two visions-one of her sister getting married and one of Vulcan imploding-I just dont know how I want to do that. Any sugestions would be greatly appreciated, so please review if you have an idea you would like to see. Actualy, it would be nice if you reviewed anyway. Thanks!


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